American policing really needs to return to a more traditional role of cops keeping the peace; getting out of police cars, talking to people, and not being prone to overreaction with the use of firearms, tasers, or pepper spray. Also (said the old crank) those damn polo shirts and blue jean alternate "uniforms" have got to go too. Don't get me wrong, I've been in more than my share tussles and certainly appreciate the dangers of police work, but as Joseph Wambaugh famously said, the real danger is psychological, not physical.

Arlington SWAT team harasses 'counterculture' gardeners for 10 hours at gunpoint, with little effective result. What a great use of public funds.

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Arlington, Texas — A family with a passion for gardening and conscious living was raided by the Arlington SWAT team early Friday morning. All 8 adults present in the house were initially handcuffed at the gunpoint of heavily armed SWAT officers, including the mother of a 22 month old and a two week old baby who was separated from her children during the raid.

Baton Rouge, Louisiana suffers from the eighth highest murder rate in the nation, and yet local law enforcement apparently considers it a top priority to conduct sting operations on gay men seeking consensual sex.

According to an investigation by The Advocate, deputies have been going undercover and busting gay men using an anti-sodomy law the Supreme Court had declared unconstitutional ten years ago. (Sheriff Sid Gautreaux says he hadn't heard about the Supreme Court decision.)

A man who recently refused to comply with an internal checkpoint in Pine Valley, Calif. filmed a border patrol officer smashing his way into his vehicle while he was inside. He was then detained for over nine hours before being released without charge. When Robert Trudell of Yuma, Ariz. was stopped at the checkpoint miles from the border a few weeks ago, he refused to wind down his window and speak to the Border Patrol officials, or consent to a warrantless search of his car.Instead he picked up his camera and started photographing the agents that began to surround the vehicle.

Trudell had rigged his car up with several video cameras in anticipation of passing through the checkpoint, having previously driven through it in the preceding days. Trudell is actively opposed to internal checkpoints and makes a habit of protesting them by filming his non compliance and then uploading the footage to his YouTube channel.

After several minutes of refusing to comply and photographing the agents, they brought out a drug sniffing dog, which failed to turn up any narcotics. Agents then consulted the Sheriff before literally smashing through the car window, sending shards of glass towards Trudell?s face and torso.

The agents then ordered Trudell to get out of his car, before putting him in handcuffs.

Responding to queries on the incident from news websites and blogs, Trudell explained what happened after the cameras stopped rolling.

?I was detained for 9 hours following, handcuffed for 6, fingerprinted, photographed, criminal history check, FBI Interview looked up, stripped everything but my shoelaces, ID and Credit Cards and placed on foot in El Cajon that night at 10:30. The ACLU was waiting to see if they are pursuing Criminal Charges against me before filing a Civil Suit against them.?Rob?

Trudell also gave the following comments to reporters with The Blaze:

?The event started in Pine Valley, California, at 12:35 in the afternoon and I was released on foot in the city of El Cajon, California at 10:30 p.m. that night by two plain clothes agents driving an unmarked black Dodge Charger,? Trudell explained. ?The agents placed a brown paper bag in the parking lot which contained my shoelaces, ID and credit cards along with asset forfeiture receipts for my computers, cameras, car, phone and glasses.?

He also clarified that he has not been charged with any offense that he is aware of.

Trudell gave more details in answers to questions posed to him by viewers of his video:

Q. What happened after?

A. ?I was hoping the window would be broken open. I bought a spare ahead of time. Afterward everything I had was confiscated other than ID and Credit Cards. They held my Computers, Cameras, Phone for 21 days with no sight of when I?d get it back. I was handcuffed for 6 hours of my 9 hours in Detention. I wasn?t offered a toilet for most of that time. I was set on the? streets of El Cajon at 10:30pm on foot 200 miles from home and 100 miles from my destination. I was denied covering events. ?Rob

Milwaukee police officers who were chasing Terrance Fleetwood last winter were sure they saw him swallow a bag of suspected cocaine.

So sure, they persuaded a judge to sign a search warrant to perform a surgical procedure on Fleetwood to retrieve the suspected contraband by sucking it from his stomach up through his nose.

The case came to light this month when the search warrant was finally filed.

Fleetwood's attorney, Bridget Boyle, said it was the first and only time she's ever seen police seek, and get, a warrant to have something as serious as nasogastric aspiration done to get evidence from a suspect.

It took about six months before the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department realized it was missing one of its M-16 rifles, a department official said Wednesday.

Sheriff’s Department spokesman Steve Whitmore said it appears the fully automatic-capable assault weapon vanished in early February, though he could not say how officials reached that conclusion and why they just recently discovered it was gone.

An improving economy has allowed [Orange County Sherriff] Demings to open 125 positions that have been frozen since 2009. So far, 60 have been filled as the pool of qualified applicants grows with service members leaving the military and entering civilian life, said the Sheriff's Recruiting and Background Manager Mary Ann Salazar.

"We are a paramilitary organization, so hiring veterans makes sense, and its important to the sheriff to bring in these highly skilled men and women," Salazar said.

More than half of the deputies sworn in Wednesday have served in the armed forces. Deputy Benjamin Jones, for example, served three tours overseas in Iraq and twice in Afghanistan with the U.S. Army and Florida National Guard before joining the sheriff's office as a patrol deputy.